Growing Dissent!

"The US has been imposing patents on life around the world through trade deals. In this case [Iraq], they invaded the country first, then imposed their patents. This is both immoral and unacceptable."
- Shalini Bhutani, GRAIN.

"Seeds are the software - and we have the seeds."
- Anonymous corporate seed company executive.

With agriculture providing the main source of income for two and a
half billion people the effects of biotechnology are immense.
Farmers across the world are being locked into a cycle of
dependency on biotechnology companies, who of course just want to
help them to feed the world.

Take the specialized GM seeds which only prosper if you spray em
with the right agrochemicals. Who makes those chemicals? Well, the
dodgy firm that sells the seeds of course. Just like Microsoft and
Windows - remember now, "Seeds are the software...".

One of the bio-tech giants, Novartis, applied for twelve patents
on altered genes that would create 'addict' seeds with 'junkie'
genes that will not perform well without chemical supplements'. As
campaigner Vandana Shiva points out, this allows "the seed
industry to realise one of its longest held and most cherished
goals: to force all farmers into dependence on the companies every
year".

The rise and rise of the biotech industry has come hand in hand
with the rise of intellectual property rights or 'patents' in the
seed industry. The Trade-Related Intellectual Property laws are
the weapon the World Trade Organisation uses to force governments
to enforce patent rules. Patents give a right of monopoly over an
invention or discovery, for example in the field of manipulating
the genes of seeds. These monopoly rights make patents a powerful
tool for those in search of power, profit and control, as they
allow companies to buy 'ownership' of staple food crops. The US
based chemical giant DuPont has filed over 150 applications for
patents on genetic resources in their attempt to dominate
agricultural production. The effects of these patents on seeds is
that farmers can lose the rights to their own original stocks and
the cumulative knowledge they have built up over centuries to a
few giants whose reach knows no limits.

We can see this colonisation in full effect in Iraq. After the
so-called 'transfer of sovereignty' last June, Paul Bremer, chief
of the occupation authority, left behind 100 orders which had to
be incorporated into Iraqi legislation, having the status and
force of binding laws. Among them is Order 81 which amends Iraq's
original patent law to favour the vultures of the West, with
disastrous consequences for the farmers of Iraq.

For generations Iraqis have been freely exchanging farm-saved
seed. An estimated 97% either use saved seed from a previous
year's harvest or purchase them from local markets. This has now
been made illegal under the new law. The law is presented as being
necessary to ensure the supply of good quality seeds in Iraq and
to facilitate Iraq's accession to the World Trade Organisation.
What it will actually do is allow the penetration of Iraqi
agriculture by the likes of Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer and Dow
Chemical, the corporate giants that control seed trade across the
globe. Eliminating competition from farmers is a prerequisite for
these companies to open up operations in Iraq, and the new law has
achieved that. The Iraqi peoples' right to food sovereignty, the
right to define their own food and agriculture policies, is fast
vanishing.

However, actions against these corporate giants have seen
impressive successes. After a campaign of direct action , bio tech
giant Bayer have more or less given up hope of growing their
genetically modified greens in the UK. Only a few months ago,
Monsanto's patent on the wheat variety Nap Hal was revoked after
Greenpeace took them to the courts. Monsanto had claimed to have
invented the special properties of the wheat used for chapatis,
which was in fact developed by generations of farmers in India!
The practice of seed swapping is also being kept alive at seed
fairs, which are lifelines for farmers, and guarantee they always
have seeds for the next season. They also safeguard the rich
diversity of crops that feed all of us. In Peru, for example,
local farming communities keep more than 250 varieties of
potatoes. In Kenya farmers swap more than 150 different varieties
of local farm seeds at annual seed fairs. In Brighton the fourth
Seedy Sunday community seed swap will be happening at the Old
Market on Sunday 6th February at the Old Market, Upper Market St.,
Hove 10am-5pm. Check out the full programme for the event at
http://www.seedysunday.org or pick up copies in Infinity Foods.

rices? what rices?

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

"It's a commercial secret, I have patented the growing process.
Now ORF MY LAAAND!"

Syngenta is already the world's largest agrochemical company and
the third biggest seed company. That's not enough for them,
though, now they are looking to extend their control beyond
patenting seeds and species and tighten their grip on the global
food chain. They want to patent the flowering process and 'plant
architecture' of rice in 115 countries. The scope is massive and
their patent could extend beyond rice to all flowering plants
including those we still haven't found or classified. Syngenta
would then be able to claim "ownership" of the flowering processes
of most of the world's major food crops. This terrifying situation
would be a threat to world food security and could limit
agricultural research. Kathy Jo Welter of the ETC group says
"Effectively, the completed rice map provides a template for most
of the world's major food crops. Syngenta is arguing that since it
can identify certain gene sequences in rice, it can monopolize the
same sequences when they turn up in other species."

So can we trust them with the keys to the worlds food supply?
Syngenta already has a dodgy history with genetically modified
rice. It developed the GM "Golden Rice" which they touted as a
technological fix for the vitamin A deficiency much of the world's
population suffers from. Syngenta sent out lots of shiny PR
releases about how they were trying to feed the world, ignoring
the fact that most food shortages are caused by economic factors,
and problems of supply rather than there just not being enough
food in the world, or rice being not good enough. Syngenta reckon
it has no commercial interest in Golden Rice, which is now being
developed by the Golden Rice Humanitarian Board. Nice name, but
like all good front groups it has lots of dodgy business groups
funding it. Syngenta still holds the patent, so if Golden Rice is
ever commercialised they will get a golden shower of royalties!

* Monsanto has been recently been fined $1.5million by the US
Department of Justice for trying to bribe the Indonesian
authorities to bypass controls on the screening of new genetically
modified crops. Between 1997 and 2002 it bunged officials
$750,000.
- SchNEWS (28th January 2005)